The Future CEO

2016 and 2017 will be remembered as the years where the impossible became possible. Autonomous cars in the form of Tesla’s Autopilot entered the mainstream, and driverless truck made a beer delivery on public roads; the UK voted for Brexit and Donald Trump won the US Presidential race. For the first time on record, wind turbines generated more electricity than was used in the whole of Scotland on a single day, and Portugal ran for four days straight on renewable energy alone. One third of bonds traded at negative interest rates; and, rather than bet on new projects and new ideas, global businesses held over $15 trillion in cash and cash equivalents — four times as much as a decade earlier and unprecedented in corporate history.

CEOs should recognise that shifts like these are not aberrations — they are the new normal. People look around and they realise we are living in revolutionary times. We have entered a New Age of Discovery. The forces which converged in Europe five hundred years ago, revolutionising the world, sparking virtuosity and toppling social order are emerging again in our lifetime. We only need to look to the past to realise humanity has been here before.

Only now these forces are so much stronger, global in nature and driven by powerful technology. We hear about super‐intelligent machines, hyperloop transportation, nanofactories, bioengineered plagues, fusion energy, geoengineering and artificial human chromosomes, and more. The impact of these inventions will be all around us. Leaders need to ensure their organisations are not caught out on the wrong side of change. We do not know where we are headed, there are no maps for this new world. The CEO of the future will need to prepare their organisation for a prolonged period of exponential change.

Shocks and aftershocks will abound, after all shock represent proof of significant change. But rather than retreat, turn inwards and become protective, winning CEOs will present themselves as brokers of hope and adventurous explorers filled with resolve. Hope, explorers and resolve, because the new age will not simply happen, leaders will have to create it.

94% of CEOs believe that their company will change more in the next five years than it has in the last five years, according to a recent study by Fortune Magazine. We’ve researched the key forces driving changes facing CEOs in the not too distant future and identified ten top challenges which are listed on the right. CEOs of the Future will focus on finding solutions to these challenges.

We’ve grouped the content into five main areas that CEOs need to focus on in order to face these challenges::

(1) understanding the context and how its changing,

(2) engaging new thinking,

(3) self awareness ,

(4) developing new skills, and

(5) changing the way leaders are developed.

This Future CEO Handbook has been designed to assist the astute future-fit CEO in mastering the perspectives and mindsets required to lead in a manner that unleashes waves of creativity, passion and commitment, and ignites and brings to life staid vision statements and strategies.